Herbicidal Activity of Beflubutamid Analogues as PDS Inhibitors and SAR Analysis and Degradation Dynamics in Wheat.

In this work, a series of beflubutamid (BF) analogues' postemergent herbicidal activity was evaluated, and the structure-activity relationship (SAR) was discussed. At a dosage of 300 g ai/ha, compounds ()- and ()- showed excellent herbicidal activity against , , and , with inhibition rates of 90, 100, and 80% and 100, 100, and 100%, respectively, comparable to that of commercial herbicide BF, which showed inhibition rates of 90, 100, and 100%, respectively. Notably, at dosages of 150 and 300 g ai/ha, the chiral compounds ()- and ()- exhibited higher herbicidal activities than their racemates. Molecular docking results indicated that compounds ()-BF and ()- have stronger binding affinities with phytoene desaturase (PDS), resulting in a higher herbicidal activity. Additionally, the degradation dynamics half-life of ()-BF in wheat was determined to be 77.02 h. Consequently, compounds ()- and ()- are promising lead candidates for the development of highly effective herbicides.